Category Archives: Families

How long have we been friends for, you ask? Well let’s see, here’s Jada now…

…and here’s me (Breanna) and Jada at Scottie and my wedding! So yeah, it’s been like at LEAST a year or two since then!

So when we got the call to come take family photos for Lori and Quinton’s 10 year wedding anniversary, we were psyched!

And you can see why!

When I say this a fun family, that’s understatement!

This family can laugh with the best of them, which makes Scottie and I laugh with the best of them, which makes for a very fun session with some very crooked pictures!

Luckily, these 3 can also glam it up for some standard (aka straight) family photos where all 5 of us aren’t giggling!

But then there are still a few moments squeezed in between the serious ones like this…

(Like father, like daughter!)

Thanks Quinton, Lori, and Jada for a very fun family session! We are so happy we have you in our lives and we are so happy we were able to capture this time period in your lives together! Congratulations on 10 years Quinton and Lori! We look forward to being a part of many more of your years together down the road!

But with his photo sessions now, just like with everything else in his life, Vincent is learning to share. That’s because his 6 month old brother Will is the star of this session!

At least that was the plan since it WAS Will’s 6 month session, but as Vincent and Will’s parents know, when you have two kids, things don’t always go as planned!

But sometimes that’s because things turn out even BETTER than you expected!

We quickly found that this session required some double teaming to keep up with all who were involved, both by Scottie and myself with our cameras, and by Will and Vincent’s parents with their quick legs to follow Vincent and slick bottle skills to keep Will happy.

The two man teams we had going worked. We were able to get a few of those happy family photos with everyone all together…

… as well as one with ALMOST everyone all together.

We were able to get some great shots of each kid alone….

….and of each kid having a ball with their parents.

But best of all, we got some shots of Vincent being so very sweet to his little brother, Will.

Overall, we couldn’t have asked for a more fun family photo session! We all had a great time and we have the pictures to prove it! See you all on your next major milestone!

Just when we (Scott & Breanna) thought engagement sessions couldn’t get any more awesome….

….Keri and Jason added their two year old son into the mix!

Ok, so maybe he wasn’t having as much fun as we were…

No, that’s not true, he was having a blast!

I mean, who wouldn’t?! Having mom and dad’s full attention…

…playing with them in the ocean…

…in the photobooth…

…or with whatever cool wall, beam, or pole happens to be near you that you think is awesome for whatever reason?! (He loved that stuff).

The days don’t get any better than that for a toddler!

Even if they involve lots of sand in the mouth and a pretty decent jean rash. What great day DOESN’T involve those two things?!

But in truth, it really wasn’t all about him. It was about his parents.

They are those other two people in the photos that you may not have noticed behind their son’s cuteness!

But they were the real stars for the day.

These are the two people who took a trip from Arizona to California with their two year old son, for the engagement session of their dreams that almost didn’t happen due to their trip taking a turn for the worst. These are the people who put in a lot of hard work to really earn their photos!

Seriously, my heroes!

(If you want to be the first to see Keri and Jason’s wedding photos when they go up, like our Facebook page !)

I hope you guys love the photos and that they were worth all you went through to get them! I hope the rest of your trip was great and that the rest of your time between now and the wedding is amazing as well, because we can’t wait to see you laughing and having fun again on your big day!

When Breanna and I started Radiant Photography all of those years ago I knew it was such an honor to be a part of the beginning of peoples lives together. What I didn’t know was what a blessing it would be to watch the marriages grow into families. This is never more apparent to me than when one of our past wedding couples call us to do a family photo session. A few weekends ago we got to do just that with Erin and Alex who’s wedding is one of the very first that we photographed as Radiant Photography.

Their wedding day was so much fun, here is their wedding blog to prove it …and the fun continues with the addition of their beautiful daughter, Kami!!!

One of my favorite parts of editing sessions like this is to see all of the different expressions we can get out of these kids and Kami did not disappoint!

Thank you Erin and Alex for allowing us to be a part of your lives and your family’s story.

I mean, really tell it. How do you contain and explain all the memories, moments, and magic that comes with a group of people who are connected in such an intricate way?

You can try to write down all you remember, you can do your best to pass on the stories, but does that really capture it?

That’s a difficult question with a challenging answer. But there’s one thing I do know- photos definitely help fill in the gaps to the story.

Which is especially true when it comes to a family with as strong of a legacy as the Van Hofwegens have. Theirs is a family consisting of two parents and their four boys who began visiting Mission Beach in San Diego each summer when the kids were younger.

They continue that tradition to this day with the addition of the boys’ own new family members whom they have brought into the picture (both figuratively and literally!).

So they decided they needed some photos to help tell the story of their family and their many shared memories on Mission Beach. So Scottie and I took on the difficult task of spending a couple of hours with them in an attempt to tell the story of a couple of decades!

After spending even a tiny bit of time with them, there are a few things we saw that seem to be consistent parts in this family’s story from year to year. For one, I’m guessing that every year there are some epic cousin playtimes that happen.

I think you could also say that there will be some inevitable cuddly moments.

Of course, there are plenty of memories made when the grown ups get in on the action as well!

Then there’s the beach…

…and bike time…

… and playground time!

It’s these small pieces, combined with what happens when 18 people share a house, that leads to some intense, joyful, momentous, and wonderful moments that build on each other over the years.

If you had talked to Scottie and myself before the shoot, you would have found that we were a little nervous about not only capturing such an incredible family legacy, but also about working with that many people at once… including 8 kids who are under the age of 8!

However, it wasn’t long before we fully forgot our fears and enjoyed our playtime!

I can’t even begin to tell you how fun it was to run around the playground and do whatever we could to push the kids to have as much fun as was humanly possible!

(The photo above is a picture of “as much fun as is humanly possible”).

Having so much fun with kids that their smiles turn to belly laughs, is what I’d call a good day at the office!

So thanks to the Van Hofwegen family for trusting us with such an important job as capturing your family memories and telling your story. I hope you had as much fun doing it as we did!